School Board Send Joint Use Agreement Back to City Council

The Benicia School Board didn't like all the provisions in a proposed amendment to the Joint Use Agreement between the City of Benicia and the Benicia Unified School District.  After making changes to the language in the agreement the school board voted to send it back to the city so the Benicia City Council could approve the changes and approve the agreement.  Once the City Council has taken that vote the school board will reconsider the matter.

The proposed amendment changes the way the city and the school district split lease revenues on a cell phone tower at Benicia Middle School.  Currently each receives 50 percent of the revenue-approximately $5,000 a year. The city had asked that the school district forgo any revenue from the lease to help the city offset costs of maintaining the ball fields at Benicia Middle School.

However, that request was changed at the last minute by the city after renegotiating the lease agreement with Crown Castle, a subsidiary of Sprint.  The agreement provided at the meeting last night suggested the split be 25 percent to Benicia Unified School District and 75 percent to the City of Benicia.

That agreement would give the district about $5,700 a year and the city would receive about $17,000 to help offset the $210,000 price tag for maintaining the playing fields at Benicia High School and Benicia Middle School.

The proposed revenue split was agreed to by the school board but they were not willing to automatically forgo future revenues as specified in the proposed agreement which called for a 50/50 split on all new, future revenue generating proposals.

The School Board wanted to option to negotiate all future revenue splits so they struck language specifying the 50/50 revenue sharing.

The agreement is on the agenda for the City Council meeting next Tuesday, June 21.